Someday the world will recognize and reward my actinic brilliance, which I will enhance with this organic solvent. When I was sixteen and found I could join Mensa, it seemed a substantially nerd-cool idea; only later did I realize that there's a certain insufferability to the notion, though whether it's better or worse than being a Mayflower descendant I couldn't say.

Bring on the interpretive dance!_________________The reward for a good life is a good life.

Sam: Wasn't posted here (on forums) about how being more intelligent correlates with increased propensity to be (or to become) "insane" (or at least develop some sort of psychosis)? I know I've seen this in articles here and there but wasn't sure if it was brought up here or not.

I always thought that this was the most interesting theme in both Lovecraft's works and the COC gamebooks: The smarter you are the more you realize 'shit is fucked up' when it is 'fucked up' and the more mental stress is therefore imposed upon your brain trying to deal with it.

I always thought that this was the most interesting theme in both Lovecraft's works and the COC gamebooks: The smarter you are the more you realize 'shit is fucked up' when it is 'fucked up' and the more mental stress is therefore imposed upon your brain trying to deal with it.

Maybe. Except smarter, more educated people handle stress better. In the military, college graduates develop PTSD at significantly lower rates than non-college educated recruits, for instance (though that's not a definitive way to define intelligence). Intelligent, broadly-experienced people tend to develop more effective coping mechanisms with which to deal with the massive burden that is being so gosh darn smart. _________________"Worse comes to worst, my people come first, but my tribe lives on every country on earth. I’ll do anything to protect them from hurt, the human race is what I serve." - Baba Brinkman

I always thought that this was the most interesting theme in both Lovecraft's works and the COC gamebooks: The smarter you are the more you realize 'shit is fucked up' when it is 'fucked up' and the more mental stress is therefore imposed upon your brain trying to deal with it.

Maybe. Except smarter, more educated people handle stress better. In the military, college graduates develop PTSD at significantly lower rates than non-college educated recruits, for instance (though that's not a definitive way to define intelligence).Intelligent, broadly-experienced people tend to develop more effective coping mechanisms with which to deal with the massive burden that is being so gosh darn smart.

But then this brings up the oh so fun topic of "defining exceptional intelligence" or "what is 'smarter'"; maybe those 'smarter' people who went cuckoo weren't really smarter after all._________________...if a single leaf holds the eye, it will be as if the remaining leaves were not there.https://www.facebook.com/O.A.Drake/https://twitter.com/oadrake

Well, "being intelligent" can be broadly defined as performing one or more cognitive tasks above average. In the example above, though, we find that it's not the cognitive task alone that seems to confer the protective benefit (I've never seen anything that said those in a specific field of study performed better, for instance). The interesting thing there, though, is that "street savvy" (an actual term used in a paper - researchers are dorks) alone doesn't appear to confer the benefit, either. There seems to be a synergistic effect of intelligence and experience, that coping mechanisms are developed through use and honing (rather than being intuitive), and intelligent people (generally) process information quickly and make connections between disparate information, allowing them to employ various techniques more effectively once learned.

At least, that's the theory._________________"Worse comes to worst, my people come first, but my tribe lives on every country on earth. I’ll do anything to protect them from hurt, the human race is what I serve." - Baba Brinkman

I wonder how much of a role curiosity plays. Purely anecdotal, but I've always noticed that less intelligent people tend to ask fewer question and more readily tend to accept the answers that they are presented with at their face value without further examination.

I mean, isn't A LOT of behavior, in particular activities done as children, adolescents, and young adults (i.e. individuals with less life experience), which could be called stupid or risky or 'kids being kids' or 'youthful exuberance' a result, at least in some part, of curiosity. I mean Andrew WK host a show all about that.
But more on point, this reminds me of all those kids who (gross generalization here but just go with it) who follow all the rules growing up and throughout high school and then only to go through traumatic binge partying episodes (drinking, drugs, casual sex) with the first taste of freedom from immediate parental control. I've seen people whom I would definitely call highly intelligent do some outrageously stupid things their freshmen years of college._________________...if a single leaf holds the eye, it will be as if the remaining leaves were not there.https://www.facebook.com/O.A.Drake/https://twitter.com/oadrake

You know, I don't know any of the science here because I'm not as into developmental, but I wouldn't discount intellectual curiosity as a factor. It may contribute to whether or not some kids seek new experiences. In the big five personality model "extraversion" is understood to represent excitement seeking. This would be independent of intelligence, though (edit: that is to say extraversion is considered an independent personality trait, so it's possible to be dumb and extraverted or smart and extraverted). What that means in terms of coping mechanisms, I couldn't say... Though you could theorize that no one trait (intelligence, curiosity, experience) would be sufficient to instill them._________________"Worse comes to worst, my people come first, but my tribe lives on every country on earth. I’ll do anything to protect them from hurt, the human race is what I serve." - Baba Brinkman

What is, "how I like my Australians?"_________________"Worse comes to worst, my people come first, but my tribe lives on every country on earth. I’ll do anything to protect them from hurt, the human race is what I serve." - Baba Brinkman